Eleanor Holmes Norton

I want to thank Mr. Shuster, Mr. Rahall, and my good friend Mr. Denham for their very important work to bring this matter to the floor so soon after the recess. I'm sure everyone appreciates it, and I certainly associate myself with the…

I have no further speakers, and I yield back the balance of my time.

In the 1940s, Congress gave OPM the authority to exempt Federal employees living in towns in Maryland, Virginia, and the immediate vicinity of the District from the Hatch Act's prohibition on Federal employees running in partisan…

I thank the gentleman for yielding and for his work in helping to bring this bill to the floor today. I especially want to thank the ranking member of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Elijah Cummings, who introduced the Hatch…

As we end the 112th Congress, we are faced with two crises: the fiscal cliff crisis; and now a gun crisis and a mental health crisis, that comes to us from Newtown, Connecticut. When you consider that this is a Congress which has not been…

And I thank the gentleman from Utah for his kind remarks. (Ms. NORTON asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

May I say that we will miss seeing you occasionally in that chair, and I know I speak for my colleagues on both sides of the aisle when I say we will especially miss you sitting in the chair as chair of Financial Services of the…

I am not only pleased with the outcome of this bill; I am proud of the way it was achieved. This bill about war dead, about war heroes, had emotional content. But the Members reasoned together and in a collegial fashion agreed upon an…

I have been an aficionado of public-private projects in my own Subcommittee on Economic Development.

That is a fine date, Mr. Chairman. We will either be over the cliff or not by that time.

I am not sure there is a good defense.

We really, in some kind of dream of our own, to keep the notion going that somehow these States from west to east will continue to move forward.

This is a country of jurisdictions. Some will come later, all will come, and those who come early will be ahead.

I think you are doing the right thing, take back the money.

I don't know about California and other places where high-speed rail may be controversial, but I do know where we are furthest along, and all I want to do is to see us get started so that we have a pilot to show that we can do this.

Now what we have learned as a result of the droughts, as a result of Sandy, as a result of Katrina, is that, I don't know, we may not have another 9/11; we certainly have done a lot to prepare in case we are faced with another tragedy of…

I am still not convinced that Governors don't have authority, perhaps with their legislators, to keep from smacking us in the face with more liability.

Are we sure that there will be no rebuilding, Mr. Tombar, in the affected areas until some barriers are constructed that would go far toward making a similar disaster not impossible?

I especially thank you for holding this very timely hearing on yet another unprecedented storm in our country.

I am very interested in this program that apparently is being used in New York to allow people to stay in their own homes without power instead of going to temporary housing.

That is a very important efficiency, and I commend you on that.

Isn't there something we can do about that? I mean, I can understand that people who have lived in an area all their lives, they can't possibly imagine not living there.

I think that although we didn't have tremendous impacts here in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area from Hurricane Sandy, there were some.

I wish you would, within 30 days, get information to the chairman about what action HUD and FEMA have together taken.

It makes me a stronger and better advocate for the people in the worst-affected areas.